Fuck the Tories

I got an e-mail from someone regarding people who were planning on voting Liberal Democrat and some of the standard anti-Corbyn talking points you hear wheeled out: that he’s ‘weak’, that he ‘hasn’t done anything’, that Labour would be doing better under a different leader and all the rest. I started to write a paragraph in response and it turned into something a bit longer, so I thought I may as well post a slightly modified version of it here.

With regards to Corbyn being a ‘weak leader’ who has ‘destroyed the Labour Party’, let’s step back a bit. Tony Blair took over Labour in 1994 and inherited a poll lead of around 25 points. Labour was never going to lose the 1997 election. Labour then won an enormous landslide and, while it did many good things, it never used that power and goodwill to challenge the fundamentals of what the Tories had done to society since 1979. We’ve already seen how easily many of its gains have been dismantled. Labour lost 5 million voters between 1997 and 2010 and studies have shown that a significant number of these were working-class people who simply stopped voting, presumably disillusioned with what was on offer. Labour was in such a bad place that in 2015, after 5 years of a truly cruel austerity agenda which has hurt so many people, it basically stood still in the polls and the Tories actually increased their seats and won a majority.

When Corbyn won the Labour leadership, Labour had suffered two election defeats in a row and was bobbing around in the late-20s/early-30s in the polls. Ed Miliband had hesitantly shifted the party ever so slightly to the left on some issues and this was viewed by many in the Labour establishment as why the party lost. Corbyn, then, was running against other leadership candidates who were all arguing variations of the same thing – that Labour had to accept some level of austerity, had to accept anti-immigration politics and had to move closer to the Tories. The crossroads Labour faced in 2015 wasn’t ”the policies of 2019 with Corbyn, or the policies of 2019 with a more polished leader, it was Corbyn or a firm shift to a being a more reactionary, Tory-lite party. The brilliant, progressive agenda Labour currently has is because of the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.

Since Corbyn took over, this ‘weak’ leader has faced furious, daily attacks in the media and a Parliamentary Labour Party largely to the right of him who have tried to undermine and remove him at every turn. In the face of such attacks, pretty unprecedented in our lifetime, he has shifted the Labour Party solidly to being a left-wing, progressive party with a truly transformative agenda that would fundamentally alter the UK for the better.

He has completely changed the narrative on austerity, which has gone from something widely viewed as necessary in 2015 to something which every single party now wants to distance themselves from. He has inflicted more defeats on the government than any other opposition leader in history, stopping cuts to disability benefits, cuts to tax credits, the repeal of the fox hunting ban, the return of grammar schools, the ‘dementia tax’, the removal of the pension triple lock, ensuring parliament got a ‘meaningful vote’ on Brexit and then defeating the Tory Brexit deal again and again. In 2017 he oversaw the biggest increase in the Labour vote since 1945, without which the Tories would have won a majority and Tory Brexit would have happened long ago. This is not a ‘weak’ leader by any stretch of the imagination.

What have the Lib Dems done? Jo Swinson, Ed Davey and other senior Liberal Democrats were demanding an in/out EU referendum since at least 2008, and regularly attacked both the Tories and Labour for not wanting one. In 2010 they entered into government with the Tories for no reason other than having a common purpose, and then inflicted policies on the country which have seen poverty (including child poverty) soar, homelessness soar, NHS and education spending crash with the door to privatisation in both thrown open wide, wages stagnate, the biggest fall in living standards since records began, council funding cut to the bone, a huge increase in in-work poverty and a huge increase in self-employment which doesn’t pay enough to live on, zero-hour contracts and insecure agency work. This is the tip of the iceberg of the legacy of the coalition, which is all around us, and I don’t think anyone who truly understands it could ever vote for them again until it’s clear they have fundamentally changed.

They haven’t fundamentally changed. Jo Swinson supported everything the coalition did more than most Tory MPs did. She was still defending austerity during the Lib Dem leadership election. It’s because the Lib Dems, in helping the Tories ruin the country, so destroyed their own image as a ‘progressive’ party that they have clung desperately onto Brexit, now painting themselves as the party which wants to ignore the result of the referendum *they wanted and voted to have*. During the referendum campaign, the Lib Dems explicitly mocked the idea of a second referendum as ‘undemocratic’. They said that the result would be ‘the will of the people’. They said this because they thought remain would win, and the complete 180 on that is exactly the kind of bullshit which turns so many away from politics.

They have zero plan on Brexit beyond running around blaming everyone else and offering fantasy positions. They’ll revoke article 50 if they get a majority, knowing they will never get a majority. They want a second referendum, but they can’t say what the second option would be and refuse to support the only party which can actually deliver another referendum – Labour. They are targeting Labour MPs in marginal seats where the Tories are second, making it more likely that a Tory Party standing on a hard Brexit platform will win seats. They care about absolutely nothing but the survival of their party and are merrily screwing the country again to secure this.

In brief, I’d ask the kind of people you’re describing a few simple questions:

– Why has the narrative on austerity changed between 2010 and now, to the point where every party distances themselves from it?

– Why do the Lib Dems, under a leader who advocated, voted for and still defends the dismal record of the coalition and the misery it has wrought, deserve to be forgiven?

– Why do the Lib Dems, who wanted an in/out EU referendum before the Tories did and who voted for the 2016 referendum, deserve to be rewarded for now wanting to ignore that referendum?

– How will voting Lib Dem actually stop Brexit? What is the actual plan that doesn’t involve a Labour government? There isn’t one.

People are calling this the most important election in a generation. Some people mean that only because of Brexit but the truth of the matter is that it’s the election which offers the starkest choice over the direction of the UK which we’ve seen in my lifetime. The Tory party has moved even further right and fully embraced a reactionary, xenophobic, racist nationalism which it hopes it can ride to power. The Lib Dems just pump out lies and positions which don’t bear a moment’s scrutiny, hoping that enough people are so incapable of critical thinking that they have an almost Pavlovian response to ‘stop Brexit!’ In this they have unfortunately been joined by the Greens and Plaid Cymru, who have joined in the Unite to Remain pact which is supporting Tories like Stephen Dorrell (who served under Thatcher and Major), Sarah Wollastone (supporter of Phillip Lee’s motion to stop people with HIV settling in the UK) and targeting Labour MPs in marginal seats. And the SNP is going what the SNP always does, telling everyone that everything and anything that happens is a reason for Scotland to leave a union, and that everything will just be better if some magical forces are unleashed by doing so. Sound familiar?

I don’t think I ever voted Labour before 2010. When I did so then, it was because I knew that a Tory government was a real alternative. In 2015 I had more optimism about the potential of Ed Miliband as Prime Minister than many but I still had profound reservations. Corbyn’s Labour is far from perfect but it is the first time I can recall where a party has put forward a platform which I can positively advocate for, filled with hope and passion. The 2019 manifesto hasn’t yet been released but announcements over the past few months and the general direction of travel suggests it will be even more radical and transformative than in 2017.

Corbyn’s Labour understands that democracy in the UK required drastic and radical renewal. But it also understands that what really matters is offering change which gives people power – real power which, rather than replacing one set of politicians for another, allows people to live their lives with dignity, filled with opportunities and hope. Real power which removes from people the blight of worrying about how they are going to feed themselves and their families, how they are afford a safe and decent home, how they are going to pay the bills, when they are going to receive the operation they need, how they are going to get an hour or two away from work to take their mum to a hospital appointment. Real power which begins to give people a say in the direction of the places we work at every day, the running of the transport we use and how the wealth which we all create is spent.

I truly believe that this is the greatest opportunity I’ve seen in my lifetime to change the course we are on and demand something which is not only better, but something to feel enormous hope about. And all you have to do is vote. Vote Labour.

All I’ll say about the dancing is – the absolute state of the Tories that you know that went through several levels of sign-off and was seen as ‘humanising’ Theresa May.

Instead, a quick parsing of some of the central lines from May’s speech, of the kind you won’t find much of in our media:

“You do not have to agree with a word Diane Abbott says to believe passionately in her right to say it, free from threats and abuse.” – the Tories explicitly and relentlessly targeted Abbott in the 2017 election campaign. The lines were so frequent and so uniform that it was very clearly coordinated at the highest levels. The racist and sexist abuse Abbott was receiving was very clear and at no point did Theresa May care to call off the dogs.

“I know that no party has a monopoly on good ideas. That getting things done requires working together – within parties and beyond them. When our politics becomes polarised, and compromise becomes a dirty word, that becomes harder.” – Theresa May called a snap election last year explicitly to crush the opposition and enable her to ram through whatever Brexit she wanted. There’s only one reason she now claims to care about compromise – she lost her majority and her party is constantly scheming against her.

“Conservatives will always stand up for a politics that unites us rather than divides us.” – ‘Citizen of nowhere.” “The closed blinds of their next door neighbour sleeping off a life on benefits.” Go Home vans. Deporting British citizens to please the UKIP vote. Don’t make me fucking laugh.

“The Jeremy Corbyn Party rejects the common values that once bridged our political divide.” – Yeah, Jeremy Corbyn not sharing values with the Tories is KINDA THE FUCKING POINT, THERESA.

“Would Clement Attlee, Churchill’s trusted deputy during the Second World War, have told British Jews they didn’t know the meaning of anti-semitism?” – I dunno Theresa. Would he have claimed to care about anti-semitism while supporting rabid anti-semites like Viktor Orbán, as you do, being the only party in Western Europe to vote in support of his government in the European Parliament recently?

“When the Leader of the Labour Party is happy to appear on Iranian state TV, but attacks our free media here in Britain” – It wasn’t Jeremy Corbyn who forced a newspaper to smash up computer servers due to its whistleblowing – that was the Tories. And yeah, appearing on Press TV wasn’t too smart – but authorising the selling of military and surveillance equipment to Iran seems a bit worse (that’ll be the Tory-led coalition).

“They want to support a party that is decent, moderate, and patriotic. One that puts the national interest first. Delivers on the issues they care about. And is comfortable with modern Britain in all its diversity.” – Yeah, I’m going to call attention again to that snap election called entirely for perceived political gain. I’m going to call attention to the nativist anti-immigration rhetoric and policy which has so characterised Theresa May. I’m going to draw attention to the fact that, even in 2018, most Tories don’t support equal marriage.

“A party of patriotism, but not nationalism.” – a minute ago you were bleating about the fact Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t have a hard-on for the British army.

“The freedom to make decisions for yourself, rather than have them made for you by government.” – Righto, Theresa. Aside from mass surveillance and your efforts to ‘regulate’ the internet, your party’s policies on education from school through to university have been to monetise and oppose critical thinking as a good in itself.

“And if we are secure and we are free, then opportunity is opened-up. The opportunity to take your future in your hands. To dream, and strive, and achieve a better life. To know that if your dad arrived on a plane from Pakistan, you can become Home Secretary. That if you spent time in care, you can be in the Cabinet. That if your grandparents came to our shores as part of the Windrush generation, you could be the next Mayor of London. That if you are pregnant with your first child and engaged to your girlfriend, you could be the next First Minister of Scotland.” – To boast about the opportunities afforded to immigrants when your government has already made it much more difficult for people to come here, and has been deporting the Windrush generation, is almost sociopathic. Your Home Secretary just announced further plans to toughen up immigration rules which his own dad wouldn’t have met. And bold of you to reference a lesbian couple having a child when you voted for a homophobic amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which would have made access to IVF for lesbian women far more difficult.

“Indeed, Conservatives have looked after our NHS for most of its life. And this year we gave the NHS a seventieth birthday present to be proud of: the biggest cash boost in its history. An extra £394 million every single week.” – The Tories have presided over the largest decline in NHS funding as a % of GDP since records began. Even taking into account this year’s additional funding, the Tories since 2010 have offered historically low increases in health spending at a time when it has never been under greater pressure.

“So today I can announce a new Cancer Strategy, funded through our 70th birthday investment, will form a central part of our long-term plan for the NHS.” – That’s nice. It’s a shame it comes after Tory cuts to Public Health budgets and to cancer spending in the health service.

“The free movement of people will end, once and for all. In its place we will introduce a new system. It will be based on what skills you have to offer, not which country you come from. Throughout our history, migrants have made a huge contribution to our country – and they will continue to in the future. Those with the skills we need, who want to come here and work hard, will find a welcome. But we will be able to reduce the numbers, as we promised.” – So, moments after banging on about opportunity, not being a nationalist party and being moderate, you’re actively boasting of restricting opportunities and hammering immigration for zero reason other than to appeal to petty prejudice.

“Our wonderful public servants are the best in the world. The compassion of our NHS staff, the dedication of our teachers, the bravery of our police, and the matchless courage of our armed forces.” – That’ll be why you capped public sector pay for almost a decade, public sector jobs have been cut by over a million since 2010 and falling teacher numbers have left schools in crisis.

“Thanks to Labour, the country was not prepared.” – The Tories, of course, spent most of the Labour years berating them for their ‘red tape’ and demanding further deregulation of finance. The 2005 Tory manifesto boasts of offering ‘less regulation’. In the year leading up to the crash, the UK’s public debt was less than it had been when Labour took office

“Unemployment at its lowest since the 1970s.” – The figures the government use for this exclude underemployment, economic inactivity and sickness, and the fact that (for example) record numbers are on zero hour contracts. Independent research suggests an unemployment rate of approx. 800,000 higher than the government claims. Of course, more jobs don’t necessarily mean much when you’ve built a low-wage, low productivity, low investment economy.

“The parent who swaps a benefit cheque for a regular wage.” – To re-iterate – most people in poverty live in a working household.

“But when you nationalise something, people pay for it twice – once when they use the service, and again every month through their taxes.” – To take the railways as an example, government support for privatised rail dwarves what it was for nationalised rail – and if you include the spending of Network Rail which benefits privatised companies, it’s even larger.

“Of course, everyone should pay their fair share (of tax)” – The Office for National Statistics’ own figures show that, taking into account all taxes, the poorest in society pay 38.6% of their income in tax, as opposed to 34.2% for the highest earners.

“They would also have to increase borrowing again. We already spend more each year on debt interest than we do on our schools. After all the sacrifices we have made, they would take us back to square one.” – UK debt as a % of GDP in 2010, after the financial crisis – 64.6%. UK debt as a % of GDP now, after almost a decade of austerity and ‘sacrifices’ to lower borrowing – 85.3%. Yes folks, the Tories have massively increased the public debt and they don’t have the excuse of bailing out the banks after the financial crisis.

“The money raised will go towards tackling the scourge of rough sleeping” – Homelessness has increased every single year since the Tories came into power.

“Solving the housing crisis is the biggest domestic policy challenge of our generation. It doesn’t make sense to stop councils from playing their part in solving it.” – For an in-depth look at the housing crisis and its roots in the government of 1979, read this.

“There must be no return to the uncontrolled borrowing of the past. No undoing all the progress of the last eight years.” – Just to hammer it home again – borrowing has increased under the Tories. Borrowing has increased a LOT under the Tories.

“Debt as a share of the economy will continue to go down, support for public services will go up.” – I mean really, it bears repeating – DEBT AS A SHARE OF THE ECONOMY HAS GONE UP. Spending on healthcare as a share of the economy has gone down. Spending on education as a share of the economy has gone down. Spending on welfare as a share of the economy has gone down. Central government funding for local authorities as a share of the economy has gone down.

“Because, a decade after the financial crash, people need to know that the austerity it led to is over and that their hard work has paid off.” – Paid off with lower living standards and wages but a government debt which is considerably larger than before? As for austerity being over, independent analysis of the most recent Budget saw no end in sight.